More on my fiction writing

March 17, 2014

Fergit, hell!

It was reported earlier this week that independents have surpassed Republicans as the largest voting bloc in Arizona. Independents are only slightly ahead of GOP registration. The bad news is that only 29 percent of the state's registered voters are Democrats. In 1992, Democrats made up 42.5 percent of voters.

More bad news would come in the unasked questions. How many of these "independents" trend to the right when they vote? And how many are low-information voters who will also naturally vote for "conservatives," if they vote at all? Nationally, the "independent" label has been well exposed as misleading. I hate to sun on the parade, but Arizona is a red state not a purple one.

I mention this in the context of the wider political story of 2014: The Democrats are running scared, running away from President Obama and Obamacare. The political press is all but in agreement that the Republicans will take control of the Senate in the fall election.

As an editor of mine used to say, Why is that?

After all, the GOP is the Party that Wrecked America. From tax cuts for the rich and policies that have created the widest income inequality since the Gilded Age, to endless wars and an endless war on the commons and "entitlements" — in reality, the earned benefits of Social Security and Medicare — the Republicans have pursued a radical, ruinous agenda.

To be sure, they had help from corporate Dems, especially in the deregulation that set the table for the worst recession since the Great Depression, and in bad trade deals that have helped hollow out the middle class. But, really. Today's American disaster? "The Party of Lincoln" owns it.

And a majority of voters are inclined to put them in charge of the Senate?

This is what happens with cowardly Democrats, a party in disarray. This also happens when, especially thanks to Citizens United, the plutocrats can spend unlimited sums to buy a government ever more in fealty to corporate interests. And let's not forget the Holy and Infallible National (Assault) Rifle Association.

But this is also the Cold Civil War and the New Confederacy is winning. "Fergit, hell!" the Lost Causers would say. And they haven't forgotten. They never forgot. And after the Voting Rights Act, the GOP Southern Strategy ensured they wouldn't. My God, there's a "nigger in the White House." Not my words, but ones I have received in emails and are abundant on the Internet.

Into their dream world have been drawn millions of Americans that should be voting straight-ticket Democrat. But they are convinced that all of their problems are because minorities are getting things they don't deserve, because That (Black) Man in the White House has foisted SOCIALISM on the land of the free and home of the brave.

Side note: If this is socialism, where is my free health care and college education and high-speed rail? Why aren't the war criminals of the previous administration and the Wall Street racketeers in prison?

If hope can't come from Mr. Obama, surely it will be delivered by demographics. The angry old white voters will die off.

I don't doubt the grim reaper, but I do question the demographic fairy, as Paul Krugman might put it.

The median age of the nation is 36.8 years. That means that only a relatively small cohort has ever knowingly lived under successful liberal governance, the long consensus that ended, ironically, with the resignation of Richard Nixon.

All have continued to benefit from the liberal policies put in place over the decades. They just don't know it. As I have written before, only in a nation with the protections and safety nets of America could Ayn Rand and libertarianism be taken seriously. It's a fantasy hobby. But unlike, say, model railroading, it carries consequences of national suicide.

I am unconvinced that the young will save us.

For one thing, most don't know anything about history or civics. The smartest know how to write code but they don't know how a bill becomes law. They don't know why inequality is dangerous to democracy or why the Progressive movement began in the first place. Many, safe with their inheritances, indulge in "libertarianism." You know, how the free market built the Internet and unlocked the human genome.

The rest have spent a good portion of their lives with reality television, video games, social media, "body art" and waiting on the next electronic distraction. What does the television and much of the Web tell them about their straitened futures? It's Obama's fault.

Seventy-eight percent of the country is "white alone". In Montana (two U.S. senators, even if the population is less than the East Valley), nearly 90 percent is white. The same is true in the fracking and nuclear-armed powerhouse of North Dakota. And so it goes through much of the New Confederacy.

Yes, the angry old whites will die off. But Rep. Paul Ryan, Sen. Marco Rubio and "Goldwater" Institute President Darcy Olsen are not old. The right-wing machine has trained tens of thousands of young activists. Beyond them, especially in the New Confederacy and CSA-curious states such as Ohio and Wisconsin, angry old whites are being replaced by angry younger whites. And they vote. Against their interests, to be sure — What's the Matter With __________ — but they vote.

Hispanics don't, at least not in numbers to change the calculus that favors the right. It is magical thinking to believe this will change without a return to the big-city machines of old, an unlikely proposition.

But aren't younger white Republicans likely to be more tolerant on some social issues? Maybe, although visit a megachurch and check the age of the congregation. Yep — the old folks are at the dying, liberal mainline Protestant churches. Research the degree to which fundamentalism has penerated the military. How did the Charlie Company of old become "Chosen" Company?

This young GOP may pipe down on "the gay" for tactical reasons, but it is as relentless on women's reproductive issues as its elders. It is determined to dismantle "government schools" in favor of the charter school racket — a favorite trope of billionaires, too — and religious schools, along with all the other fetishes of the right.

Younger Republicans will not vote for SOCIALISM, as in such outlandish schemes as investing in infrastructure, science and real public schools. Tax cuts and anything goes for corporate America are as much their religion as that of their elders.

But isn't there hope in the Pew poll showing millennials more likely to be "liberal" than "conservative" (31 percent vs. 26 percent)? Maybe. But, faced with a rudderless Democratic Party and right-leaning corporate media, do they know what liberalism and liberal government mean? Millennials are actually less likely than other generations to be concerned about the environment.

Other findings of the Pew survey were not encouraging, either. This generation is less connected to the wider commons and detached from institutions, including organized politics. You can bet that last part isn't true of the 26 percent that self-identify as conservatives. They will be partisan Republicans. Fergit, hell!

Stunningly, this is the only generation where self-identified liberals outnumber conservatives. Mr. Obama might have mobilized these young people into a sustainable movement, but it was not to be.

To be fair, generations are not monoliths. There is no single archetype of the baby boomers or any other. Progressives are found in every generation, but they tend to cluster in major metropolitan areas. These same metros produce 90 percent of the nations output and fund the net-taker red regions.

But our form of government is based on states, not metros. Representation is wildly out of whack and favors the right. Even Washington state, which you imagine as blue heaven, would turn red if not for Seattle and environs, and in the state legislature the anti-Seattle movement works against the city that is the golden goose.

Finally, countries around the world have shown how a ruling class can perpetuate itself for decades after it was outnumbered, even without using (much) force.

The inflection point came in 2010, when Democrats ran for the tall grass, abandoning the president and his health-care plan, and Republicans took control of most statehouses. In most cases, they have engineered legislative and congressional districts to ensure their control at least until 2020.

North Carolina is a telling example. Unlike Arizona, it was a competitive state and the most progressive in the South. That changed after 2010. Now it has embarked on a radical right agenda, including slashing unemployment benefits and intimidating regulators. One consequence has been disastrous pollution from the coal ash pits of Duke Energy, conveniently the longtime employer of the governor, Pat McCrory.

Have there been consequences? None, aside from the Moral Monday protests in Raleigh. Sen. Kay Hagen, the last statewide Democratic officeholder, is in trouble.

A Leninist would say, the worse the better. It hastens the day of the revolution. But the quiet coup has happened and any revolution will be from the right against perceived SOCIALISTS.

Still, on election day, your vote counts as much as a Koch brother's ballot. To use a Nixonian (Agnewian?) term, a vast silent majority of the screwed is there for the picking — but only if Democrats fight. Even on Obamacare. What did the Republicans have as an alternative for a plan that actually originated with them? A voucher for nothing.

I think about the line Morgan Freeman's character speaks in the film Glory: "Gonna come a time when we all gonna have to ante up. Ante up and kick in like men. LIKE MEN!..."

Adjust the gender language to suit your liking, but the point is that the right continues to win when the left won't fight. Won't try. Won't attempt to build a compelling new narrative. Won't make the taxpayer-looting, climate-denying, job-killing plutocrats the enemy. Keeps compromising as the "center" continues drifting into the red zone. A higher minimum wage isn't enough.

We would have few of the blessings this country enjoys today without the foundations and safeguards laid by progressive governance. Only we are here to remind others of the America that was, the civilization and experiment in self-government rather than merely a gamed "marketplace" — and what was done, stone by stone, to destroy it.

That story must be told, and told, and told. And if we must go down fighting, at least we will have some honor.

I recently resigned from my job at the fire department to take a firefighter position with Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton. Better pay, better benefits and job security.
Well, some things never change: Last week,a few of the guys were discussing politics in the firehouse. The conversation eventually made its way to Obama. Someone actually said, "I didn't vote for him because he was a Democrat. I voted against him because of the color of his skin."

Well, thank you Jon for explaining why I'm a partisan, why I fight, however ineffectively, for basic health care instead of "the best health-care system in the world", for individual rights as opposed to majoritarian privilege, for reproductive rights as opposed to obscurantist fetal worship, for social democracy as opposed to neo-feudalism, for the environment as opposed to sociopathic vandalism against it and any future worth having.

Let me blunt: if you're not a Democrat in this battle, you're worse than an idiot. You're the enemy. You're killing the future as surely as any Koch-sucking birdbrain locked inside a stuccoed box in Gilbert. We don't have to complicate this struggle with the realization that Democrats are co-opted and craven. Of course they are. Politics is about money which is about power. It's circular and we won't win if we beat the Democrats up because the economic terrain shifted dramatically over the past 35 years. The battlefield tells the story and it's grim. The plutocrats own the system and they will for the foreseeable future. That doesn't mean you go Full False Equivalence and vote Ralph Nader or Ron Paul or Not At All. You vote for the lesser of two evils until you can finally vote for the greater of two goods. It's not complicated. It's war.

We are going to win although by the time we do it may well be too late. Hell, it's already too late. I wish we had more time and a greater sense of urgency. I wish, I wish.

But if lieu of going insane, I'm going to propose we fight like hell anyway. The little bit of consciousness that exists in our tribe is found in places like this blog, in the urban archipelagos of a nation almost completely uprooted from its communitarian past. We don't have to imagine ourselves living in some idyllic world where people read history or think like we do. We live in a nation daft with anxiety and wishful thinking. We live, for better or worse, in a fallen world.

I was running yesterday afternoon through Portland's historic black quarter downtown when I saw a plaque on the wall. It commemorated the railroad porters and hotel waiters who made up the emerging black middle class over 100 years ago. I teared up because I remembered who I was, someone born in wealth and privilege and amnesia who still got to reach across an abyss into America's deepest dream. We are a work in progress that is impossible on its own terms. Somehow we prevailed to this point. Yes, the anxious and the small (read: the GOP's Neo-confederate base) scream the loudest and lie the most. And we're going to beat their fucking asses.

I met a 40 year old college graduated white male recently who is a self-described liberal and registered Democrat. Overtime he admitted to me he was a white supremacist and basically expressed a bigoted view of most situations. He has attempted with some success to pass his age, race and gender bigotry on to 20 somethings working with him.

I asked him how he could view himself as liberal. He said that relative to the other people in his environment he was liberal. Most of his political beliefs were moderate Republican.

The demographics fairy was no where to be found and people under 40 have never experienced living in a liberal America.

The statistic that should be reported more is actual voter turnout for each and every election, be it school board or Presidential. At the 2013 midterm election, people were celebrating 23% voter turnout in the Council Districts 4 and 8 runoff. 23% isn't something to be celebrated. It's a cause for concern.

OK Skip the democrats will have 8 years to do something good. So far they have saved little wilderness (no road less wilderness), they have failed to change our draconian prison's, they failed to capitalize on the free market by not legalizing illegal drugs, they have failed to increase rail use, they have not worked out an new immigration policy and they have let wall street and the bankers steal the world blind with a policy of forgiveness and on and on. So Skip do we need to bring back Georgie Jr and Rumsfeld and the rest of that motley crew. Maybe just a good swat team would help?You are the Marine, what would you do as Marines always have a plan?

Stunningly, this is the only generation where self-identified liberals outnumber conservatives. Mr. Obama might have mobilized these young people into a sustainable movement, but it was not to be.

OFA was supposed to do that. They called me up back in 2009 to see if I'd come to their office (they had one in Phoenix at the time) to make phone calls. I asked what about and they said it was calling voters to encourage them to call Senators McCain and Kyl to ask them to support cap and trade. After I sat there blinking for a few seconds I politely declined. That would have been time better spent organizing my sock drawer.

While we wait for Emil to find the missing plane and REB to entertain us with his substance induced comments:
I will be meeting with the Ultimate authority on Mobbed up AZ. Cept nowdays its not the Italians.

Howard helped me lock up a really bad attorney. Howard was a Okie con man and one of the best. He loved the deal. The $$ were just a side benefit. He knew never to lie to the cops but instead chose to just not say anything rather than lie.

OOPs posted on wrong blog:
From Jon's Front Pages
Ah, yes Utah the home of pyramid scams:
Buyer Beware Philosophies and it's all right to screw a fellow Mormon if he dosent know he is being screwd and its always OK to screw a non LDS heathen.
Bleed the Beast Brother.
Will Warren Jeffs escape from a Texas Hospital. His young brides await his penetration from god.
Time to close down all payday loan companies.http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Lessons_From_Utah?click=promo

Soleri- if and when we "win" what will the territory regained look like? Here's my cartoon version of devil's advocacy: Those who are making and interpreting the laws already are fatiguing the soil, and then sowing dragons' teeth, salt, land mines and poison pills into it- just in case. Our social and physical infrastructure is at best in disrepair- by the time "the left" can take power we will awaken to the reality that the nation no longer has the resources at hand to restore us to anything resembling a pre-Reagan state of relative health. Once the dust settles, the mass of voters will realize that they have settled into a standard of living of, say, Portugal. They might realize that >7% unemployment and "the homeless" are features, not bugs. ("take it or leave it, there are plenty who will gladly work for peanuts because they now know that the can end up on the streets.") Will the average, voting American somehow say,"Gee. The country's still beautiful. There's enough to eat. We have and enjoy each others' company. By getting together we can see to it that we all have enough. After all, we have meaningful inner lives and the spirit to sustain a decent existence?" If I read the american character at all accurately our general recourse will be toward religiosity and militarism. As for the Democrats, they're like a neighbor or relative who steals from me. I expect it from oligarchs, but from the Ds its closer to betrayal and treason. While I oppose those who continue to try to rip me off, I LOATHE those who pretend to embrace me while groping for my wallet, leering at my daughters. We're long past the point where the lesser of 2 evils has become the evil of 2 lessers. That said, I still hold my nose and vote. Salvage and mitigate realistically. But "Hope" is the brand for chumps.

We R thar: dawgzy
"If I read the american character at all accurately our general recourse will be toward religiosity and militarism."
One could write tons on this subject but
where I am the religious folks hit Walmart every week buying up cheap ammo.
And law enforcement never did buy into the soft blue blazer theory. They just keep buying more tanks and looking like Robo Cops.

The opening tread here pretty much died from the git-go. I think when you come out of the gate with a one-two punch of Rouge and Soleri; both at warp speed and full phasers, it sort of intimidates the rest of us.

You’re going to have to build a lefty version of the Tea Party. First objective would be to clean up the Democratic Party. Focus on the local and county level positions. You need to establish that you can “deliver the goods”. The perception is (right or wrong) that the democrats just don’t care about working and middle class America (I’m talking on a local level here). Let’s talk Phoenix (the city, not the metro) in particular. For working and middle class Americans, the two most important issues at a local level are public education and public safety. How’s Phoenix doing? I suspect it’s not a pretty picture. With regard to education we’ll get that standard “you don’t pay me enough”, or “the kids are too stupid” or “their parents are irresponsible” or “their too poor”……

dawgzy, I'm not really sure what you're saying. Exactly how are Democrats stealing from you? I grant you all the examples about current coziness with Wall Street, and the abysmal campaign finance system, which amounts to legalized bribery. These are Republican principles that the Democrats adopt in lieu of being absolutely outgunned. Otherwise, there are no liberal armies on our side. There's us, of course, the young, and various minorities, environmentalists, and people with IQs over 100. But you need a clear majority, not just a quadrennial hootenanny starring Bruce Springsteen and Katy Perry. We're clearly struggling because the institutional players on the left are exhausted while those on the right manipulate the rubes with full-scale propaganda operations from Fox News to Americans For Prosperity.

There's no road back to sanity that goes through revolution on the one hand or quietism on the other. If I thought sitting on my hands would work, I'd do that. Clearly, it won't. Our one hope is to slowly build a movement among the sane and non-sociopathic. There's no guarantee we'll win but optimism is the only power we have now. Yes, the frustration level on the left is very high, which I understand. But politics is about what's possible, not what's ideal. There is simply no comparison between the two sides. Republicans want to gut the safety net, disenfranchise the poor, and let the oligarchs rule without any interference from below. Democrats are far from perfect but they're not quasi-fascists.

America's greatness has nothing to do with the Daddy Warbucks cabal. It has everything to do with a strong middle class. Thank the Democrats for its creation, because the Republicans fought them every step of the way. They got Terry Dudas Medicare, Emil Pulsifer Medicaid, Cal and myself great pensions, and everyone here a good shot at opportunity. In the 1970s, the right finally succeeded in gutting Big Labor and giving corporations personhood. It's been a steady descent since then. And it's probably understandable that citizens are suffering from a version of the Stockholm Syndrome. The more we lose, the more we want to blame it on the people with nothing. It's poignant and even pathetic, but human nature. For those of you immobilized by despair, shake it off. This fight is not just the Democrats'. It's America's.

A further prediction: the plane will be found by tourists hiking in the jungles of Thailand. (Yes, there are organized hiking tours, and unorganized trekking may also occur.) This is because the jungle canopy tends to camouflage the wreckage from visual satellites and because the search is thus far concentrated on ocean areas and to a lesser extent on landmasses much further north.

More information on the latest media disinformation regarding technical data, when I add my next comment shortly.

Why announce this, wkg in bham? Your supposed inner monologue regarding what you find of interest is itself not of interest. The only reason for you to post this is to be gratuitously insulting and provocative. I can only be glad that I can expect no further remarks from you on me or my comments since you won't be reading them.

Hi. I'm of several minds about the current situation. My grandparents had pics of FDR and the NRA eagle (the New Deal one) hung in their modest business on West Van Buren, and their appreciation was based in measurable improvement of their lot. The lesson was taught and learned. I obviously haven't bowed out of politics. I now live in OR where liberalism isn't anathema and where we are better off for it. And I will take half of a loaf. But here is Democratic compromise: Boehner and Obama are at opposite ends of a room, B sez "meet you halfway, and O walks to the middle, B then walks halfway toward O, stops, sez "your turn," Obama (transformative figure) meets him 3/4 of the way across the room. There's compromise and compromised. The first time I voted it was for HHH in '68 when the DEM party antiwar left was neutered. H could't somehow take an unequivocal anti war stance. Nixon preyed on this with "secret plan to end the war" enuf confused votes went to him. Voila- we're out in '75! Lesson learned. I sat in the Senate Gallery in the summer of '64 when the Great society Budget was voted through among cheers, and civil rights laws were becoming a reality. The dems had to contend with the Southern bloc and still managed to get it done. Lesson learned. But since then have routinely seen the Dem party professionals sell out and alienate the party's "natural" constituency, for the sake of "electability" abandoning principle and STILL losing spectacularly. (Mark Penn et al. trading their position of naively given trust for the chance to dip their jowls into the corporate trough. ) Mutual mistrust defines the party and the old "new deal coalition." I give money to dem candidates whop are willing to trust the voters to support them when they represent ordinary peoples' interests, but will never give a nickel to the party. (hyperbole alert) Hillary in '16 "cuz she's not Mussolini."

Also note that my failure to comment on the current thread by no means indicates an absence of interest: on the contrary, I have commented on these topics here at Rogue in several prior threads. The fact that my daily online time is so limited forces me to make practical choices; the Malaysian Airlines topic has not only been of burning interest to me but my observations are also time-sensitive since every day brings new revelations and I don't want to be accused of being a Monday morning quarterback.

I think it’s important that myself who flings all kinds of stuff onto this blog and Soleri that sings poetry when writing and REB who outlandishly amuses and Emil that provides detailed postings, keep doing so on a regular basis. Early on I got sideways with Emil when he recommended I read a particular author and I replied I found the author a bore. I know there are some folks here that just skip over when they see my name, but I take no offense as I post for my pleasure. Besides I read somewhere anger is bad for your heart.

wkj: Jon and Soleri do not intimidate me, they educate. As a result of their posts Petro's and many others here I learn and do research. This blog beats the Repulsive and the Huffington post. Talton and Soleri are a lot like my friend Charles Bowden (of Killing the Hidden Waters), give them a one word topic and they can give you an entire college semester of lecture.
I do miss Phxsunfan and Awinter and a few others that have been absent as of late. But we all tire and retreat to the cave on occasion. But I will keep coming back until the dry desert polishes my bones and if a spirit exists it will hang out atop a Sajuaro cactus in the Great Sonoran desert. Whats left of it!

What kind of "Liberal" Democrat is Dianne Feinstein? She defends NSA for years until it looks like they are taping her and her staff. Now she is supporting Pot Head Jerry Brown in not following Washington and Colorado in legalizing marijuana. Her arguments are old crap. I would look for St. Janet to run for office in California or get an appointment to the 9th Circuit.

wkg in bham, there was a lefty analog to the Tea Party (although it wasn't astro-turfed and funded by cynical billionaires): Occupy Wall Street. It failed for many reasons, but I think the main cause was its target. Wall Street is simply too nebulous a symbol. People need to feel rage about archetypes immediately present to their own experience. It's why the Tea Party in practice was a racist movement. For the right, government is evil precisely insofar as it gives black people "free stuff". It's the sum and substance of Rush Limbaugh's radio rants. It's the arresting visual content of Fox News. It's the contempt and rage of America's lumpen proletariat whenever it sees black youth dragging their pants on their asses. Wall Street simply couldn't compete on that terrain. You see a well-dressed white dude and you think what? Probably, I'd like to be that.

It's telling that the Democratic Party today is more centered in the professional classes than the workers. In Oregon where I live, the higher-income neighborhoods are the most liberal areas. Prosperous Portland went to Obama by 4 - 1 margins in both 2008 and 2012. Otherwise, Oregon is mostly a red state. It's also economically stressed and anxious. You want to tell the difference between Arizona and Oregon? In one word: Portland.

There's a lot of resentment, as you might guess, among the white working class for the chi-chi liberals. They hate the bicyclists and the bike lanes, the MAX lines and the streetcars, the joggers and the hikers, and almost everyone who is "alternative". And those hated people are exactly the ones turning Oregon "blue".

Now, it's important to remember that Democrats in Oregon (they run the state) keep tax rates high, public investment strong, education funded, and welfare programs generous. And when Oregon's economy had many well-paying jobs in aluminum plants, pulp mills, timber cutting, and mining, that meant the Democrats were strong champions of working-class interests. The bargain was explicit. Vote for us, and we'll keep you prosperous.

In the 1970s, one man changed all that. Tom McCall, a Republican, was governor and he made a clean environment his political legacy. He's revered even today for that vision. And in an odd way, he showed how the Democrats (even though he wasn't one) were going to evolve from lunch-bucket politics to quality-of-life issues.

So, we have a demographic and political realignment in this country. And if there's one state that shows the process from the other side, it's West Virginia, now reliably Republican. There are no chi-chi liberals, no environmentalists to speak of, no "alternative" lifestyles, and no creative class or high-tech industry. It's Oregon without Portland.

I suppose we should savor the irony that the most liberal city in all America is host to Wall Street, and that it's also very wealthy and very pricy. Ditto San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and Washington DC. But on closer inspection, it's not really that ironic at all. America is a nation in transition from one economic reality to another, from manufacturing to knowledge-based inputs, from resource extraction to value adding. And it's this America the Democrats rule in. Republicans? They rule in the old Confederacy, the subsidized farms in the Midwest, the rootless and faceless suburbs of the Sun Belt (Mesa!), and the energy-sectors where boom and bust are a way of life.

Democrats, dare I say, are the future. Republicans are the past (the only age demographic Mitt Romney and John MCain carried was the over-65). And, yes, the cold civil war we're enduring is tectonic in scope. Republicans are feverishly blowing up bridges and rallying diehards in retirement communities. And they're going to lose because America is changing fundamentally and forever.

I'm a Democrat because meeting the challenge of change is the only thing we are ethically impelled to do. Resisting change is what troglodytes, bigots, Know Nothings, and plutocrats do. There's no contest here. It may be too late for the planet when we finally win, but win we will.

@emil: I’m sorry. You’re right I apologize. I kind of lost it there. You’re also right that I do try to be provocative; I’ve made no misrepresentations about who I am and where I’m coming from. I have nothing but respect for all the regular posters here. That’s why I keep checking back.

I was reading of our "feckless" and "weak" president according to the right (and implied by the spin of the MSM) - the latest theme sprung from Russia "playing us" on Ukraine and Crimea - and I'd like to make an observation that conflates nicely with soleri's it-may-be-too-late-to-repair-the-damage-after-all mentions above.

Barack Obama is clearly one of the most ruthless presidents of my generation. I'm saying this as a compliment (within the context of his critics - not to reflect my opinion of ruthless presidenting.) The reason Putin is smirking and flagrantly doing what he is going to do is not a dismissal of Obama's particular "weaknesses," it's because the decline of the U.S. Empire is bare before the world. The know-nothing reactionary right are of course going to blame particular (especially Democratic) politicians for not getting "the swagger" right, for not being "tough enough," etc. But the truth is, the American Party is over.

(As an aside, I would like to point out that this particular historical decline is global, so any nation who takes the helm as we took the helm from the British have rather tattered prospects in comparison to the early 20th Century, so we should relax a little bit and quit acting apocalyptic about Ooh Scary Russia... or China ...sheesh.)

I think that this is also the reason why the Left of years past are not able to swagger effectively anymore, either. There are simply not the resources to make the massive social promises of decades past - certainly not the chicken-in-every-pot sort of things that translate to the "modern" American as a couple of cars in every garage, cheap gas and strawberries in December.

There is a necessary and possible populist message to be made, and it should be made, but there is, understandably, a great timidity in trying to sell what is going to be the equivalent of victory gardens and chicken coops in the back yard. Because the ability to feed ourselves locally is the last and best option that should be put forth enthusiastically, with music and dance, but that is the sort of message that comes from hipsters and hippies, not politicians. They are only used to selling the future of "The Jetsons," not "Green Acres."

I guess I'm trying to say that until humility and self-sustenance becomes chic again, electoral politics is just an embarrassment of fig leaves.

Malaysian airliner: Will be interesting to see how it plays out. However resource wise this appears to be an Asian problem. And unless that changes I m not a fan of US involvement.
And I quit flying as its a an absolute hassle.
Petro, Very near your abode I have a friend farmer that is looking for some good help to harvest her vegetables for market.
Petro maybe u can help me out here and describe how you think Obama is ruthless. I will give you he has deported more illegal immigrants.
And he was ruthless in winning two terms.

Drones are pretty fucking hackable. As long as the tech to create and launch those despicable robots survive, so will the tech to confound them. Of course, there will still be much mayhem and death. A game I could live without, but a game.

Re: France. Good fucking riddance. I think "the wealthy" need to find a nice, concentrated happy place to exist.

@ Petro: “But the truth is, the American Party is over.” Great. The party should never have been scheduled.

@ Cal: “And I quit flying as its a an absolute hassle.” Amen to that. If I can’t drive, I’m not going. Fortunately, here in the east that’s not all that limiting. Within a day’s drive of Birmingham (admittedly at hard day) I can drive to Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Nashville, Chicago, Ashville, Indianapolis, Columbus……

wkg - Amen on the flying. The bonus is that it is an indefensible luxury to elevate oneself with so much petroleum anyway. The entitlement of long-distance vacationing has an expiration date... and "business" travel is not far behind.

Good insights. The piece that was left out of this commentary is the "potential" for the intel collection and archiving sector to shape electorial outcomes by the use of the information they have assembled by what ever means. One would have to be beyond naive to think this isn't already happening.

The CBN report is pure capitalist propaganda. France has a history of class warfare (the Revolution and the Paris Commune, plus a couple of class-based national riots) which predate the boogie word "Marxism". Obamacare is a corporate welfare program, not national healthcare. Until the Demos care as much for labor as they do for the rich and corporations (hand-in-hand with the Repubs) there is no chance of the USA becoming France. Good healthy whole foods? Real cheese? National healthcare? Life before work? We should be so lucky.

I am sure Wall Street is looking forward to fleecing these rich French as quickly as possible. Starbucks will be able to fill its ranks with French-speaking barristas. Let's see how happy ex-pat French are in a few years in the wilderness.

My apologies because we may strip some gears with this subject change.

While soleri and other "tough" Democrats talk tough, this Chinese communist plant is single handedly dismantling the education system here in AZ. As the head of the education committee, she is dismantling everything. The Democratic Divas are powerless to stop her. Commonsense minded state representatives are powerless to stop her.

Don't you people have the ability to spot the really dangerous operatives in AZ and attack them with everything you have???

This Chinese communist plant, whose ancestors brought drugs to the Americas in the 1800's is crushing your state and you are powerless to even raise your voice??

Granted, You know she is on the payroll of the Mexican drug cartels, their relationship goes back 130 years, but Lord, don't you have any fight left in you??

You worry about shade trees while this Chinese communist Mata Hari destroys the future of your children??

Um Reb, she's Korean (the good southern kind) and she's married to Kevin Johnson (yep, old KJ of the Phx Suns). She's still an abomination tho! You'd think after getting thrown out of a couple of cities, she'd be poison, but evidently it's a badge of honor to the oligarchs and their sycophants.

I did not know this: Kevin Johnson married Michelle Rhee, the controversial ex-chancellor of the DC school system in 2011. Rhee became a national lightning rod for her campaign against teacher unions in the name of education reform. Johnson is 48 now, lives in Sacramento where he grew up and is now the mayor. Time marches on.

Kimberly Yee is a graduate of Pepperdine (a university noted for its right-wing tilt. She's a skilled political operative, working for California Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pete Wilson, and the Republican caucus of the AZ legislature before winning a special election to replace ousted Doug Quelland. She emphasizes red-meat issues like marijuana prohibition and abortion. There's the clue. She's smart, politically savvy, and ambitious. And she clearly has higher office on her radar screen.

I know I'm a stuck record about these things but this is today's Republican Party: manipulating low-information old white voters in order to gain power. But to what end? Is Kimberly Yee truly a red-meat wingnut? I doubt it. But she knows that the GOP is owned by its media, that you have to play with snakes if you're going to convince the lunatic base - no longer the fringe - of your right-wing bona fides. And when you're in office, you keep the 1% happy - tax cuts for the rich! - because they're the ones punching your meal ticket.

If you're a Republican, wake up. They use you by exploiting emotional issues they themselves don't give a damn about.

@Reb: I don’t keep up with day-to-day stuff about Phoenix. Any links regarding “single handedly dismantling the education system here in AZ. As the head of the education committee, she is dismantling everything.” I don’t want to divert this thread onto education policy, funding, etc. or anything like that. More of just a background info type of thing.

As an aside I like red-meat myself; although I like mine cooked to at least medium.

Red Meat WKG in bham: I sure U will like the stomach cancer also.
Human veal reminds me of that scene in Quest for Fire. Nothing like a young tender piece of arm to kick off dinner with a side of swamp grass.
Mayo Clinic(I heard) has said they cant prove meat causes cancer but they have found it feeds existing cancers.

Test for formating, etc.
Notes regarding the test:
- It was written specifically for electrical engineers in Birmingham, Alabama. Some of the questions are south-centric. For example, there’s a question regarding Civil War battles. Here, the Civil War was a seminal event.
- A test for a different population in Arizona would have been different
- An electrical engineer is a college graduate. Familiarity with literature, the arts, history, philosophy, etc. separates a genuine college graduate from say a really good electrician.
- It is unabashedly Western and American in its orientation.
- There a number of pop culture questions. If you’re going to mingle with a wide range of people there are certain things you just have to be familiar with. For example, stock car racing and college sports are really big deals in Alabama.